Question: Is the soul always with the person during his lifetime, or can it leave him temporarily, even making its home elsewhere?

Sri Chinmoy: As a rule, the soul always remains with the person during his lifetime, but it can leave the body for a few minutes, or a few hours at most, while the person is asleep. It can also leave the body for a short period while the aspirant is in a deep state of meditation. Then one can see one's own body. One may see it as a dead body or a dynamic body or as a shaft of light facing one's soul, or in many other ways. Of course, at that time, one sees the body with the eye of one's own soul. To come back to the question, the soul must remain with the person during his lifetime.